


Bearenting

by Cluemily



Series: Bearenting [1]
Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Adoption, Impostor Brown (Among Us), Minis are Children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:27:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28928025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cluemily/pseuds/Cluemily
Summary: Brown didn't intend to take them under his wing. It was only supposed to be a temporary arrangement every time.
Relationships: Brown & Mini Crewmate (Among Us), Impostor & Mini Crewmate (Among Us)
Series: Bearenting [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123100
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Bearenting

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly did not intend to get as involved with this game but my friends all made such fun content that I kind of got sucked in... and made a couple of my own little colourful bean OCs along the way... or uh... more than a couple. I just really like making them, it turns out.
> 
> So I wrote a couple chapters about my Brown (Bernard/"Bearnard") and a bit of how he I guess met his two adopted kids to try and flesh them out more (and 'cos I love them all so much). This was gonna be out before the last OS, "Tinsel Troubles", but that one was kinda time-sensitive?
> 
> (And if this goes beyond two chapters I entirely blame my friends.)

_This is ridiculous._

For perhaps the past few hours the brown-clad figure had practically chanted that to himself, feet propped up on the table in front of him as his hands had idly toyed with a headband decorated with small, round bear ears that usually sat atop his helmet.

He was supposed to be watching the cameras but his eyes barely focused on the unchanging screens. ‘Just in case’, they’d told him. And if that wasn’t funny enough they’d thrown him onto the first night watch. He’d almost laughed right then and there, only holding it back to question if it was necessary; Lime was the impostor, after all. Weren’t they safe? But of course, wary as ever, Yellow took charge and kept insisting it was better to be safe than sorry. And they’d be right – Lime hadn’t been alone in this, and had left an aggravated teammate behind to clean up their mess.

It had been going so well. The duo had shared hushed plans with each other once they had realised another Impostor was on board, ensuring they wouldn’t give one another away. But Lime had gotten cocky with how easily they felt that they’d dispatched the first pair of crewmates. They’d leapt out from a vent before lights had completely dimmed and been caught red-handed by Blue, barely saving Yellow from their grisly fate as the next victim. And the rest was history; Lime got to float out somewhere in the vacuum of space, leaving Brown to single-handedly plot how to deal with the rest of the crew.

Doing this himself wouldn’t pose too much of a problem, if only there were more left who hadn’t pointed fingers at Lime, because why would an Impostor out their partner? Lime had slipped up and put suspicion on Brown already during one of the past meetings, too, meaning any kill risked the blame falling back on himself if he didn’t catch the right crewmate at the right time, when the right people didn’t have an alibi in place.

He growled low as he juggled the idea of leaving the remaining crew to survive. It’d give him an edge on any future missions if they ran into one another once more. Some with immediate trust in him if things went wrong. But on the other hand did he want to leave them alive?

Brown shoved the chair back from the desk with a kick that was maybe a little harder than it needed to be, standing from the uncomfortable seat and straightening the pristine business suit atop the mandatory plain brown spacesuit; unconventional but so was someone running around with an inflatable flamingo on their head, or little notes obscuring their vision. Unlike those, however, a clean suit looked impressive when there was a gruesome murder moments before.

Leaving the droning of the security cameras behind, Brown exited into the hall and ambled along past the lower reactor, paying no attention to its constant hissing and crackling. He’d long grown used to the general noises the ship made at night and they were almost comforting, in the way that they assured everyone the ship was not going to explode in the next few minutes.

That familiarity was what had him pausing as he passed the crew’s sleeping quarters; individual rooms for each crewmate clearly marked, doors tightly shut for the night with no one but the night watch with permission to leave until it was time to work again. Some of those doors weren’t going to open again this journey, their occupant long gone and the room just waiting for a new crewmate to take their place next trip. That was why he found it odd, stopping in front of Lime’s room and hearing sounds of movement and gentle thumps against the solid door.

Brown tilted his head, considering what could be in there. It could easily be a nosy crewmate who was hoping Brown wouldn’t go walkabout whilst the rest slept, looking for some interesting impostor memorabilia or whatever they’d think to find in there. That option had his hands flexing.

If it was a crewmate, no one would think to check a room that was supposed to be left alone when they didn’t show up for breakfast, meaning Brown could easily bring the number of remaining living bodies on the ship down a notch whilst avoiding suspicion.

And if it wasn’t? Well it was up to Brown to get rid of anything Lime left behind, right? There could be incriminating evidence in there, after all.

It only took a moment to ensure no one was going to walk out of their room before Brown returned to standing in front of Lime’s vacant room, fingers flexing once more. The noises hadn’t stopped since he arrived. Even so he continued to quietly approach so not to alert whatever was in there.

Brown softly placed a hand on the panel next to the door, moving closer to make out how close the mystery life form was to the door. The sounds got softer, moving away. Then, in one swift movement, Brown opened the door and lunged towards the bright flash of colour he saw moving without a second thought. By the time Brown landed his fingers had elongated into strong claws, palms splitting to reveal two maws of equally sharp teeth upon them.

He didn’t get much further than that, knocking the source of the sound over and pausing at the squeak of alarm as it hit the ground. That was when he finally took in the bright green of a suit on a much tinier scale than a regular crewmate.

 _...Lime brought a_ child _with them?_ Brown thoughts quickly caught up, falling back on their hands and watching as the small child wriggled their limbs whilst he processed this new information, trapped on their back due to the pack attached to the suit.

He didn’t move to help, only watching as they successfully rolled to the side and hopped back to their feet whilst making a manner of noises in a mockery of a threatening display, upset at the stranger in their territory. The larger imposter wasn’t fazed, reaching out a claw to lift the smaller one’s helmet and head tilting as they latched on to a claw with tiny teeth, form shifting beneath the lime green suit.

At least Lime had the smarts to put them in a real suit; no one needed a child giving them away if they couldn’t even hold the form of a suit.

“...What to do now?” That was the question now, wasn’t it. If he left and the crew discovered their toothy stowaway they’d surely send him into the vacuum of space just like his parent, that he was positive of. Or perhaps, worse, keeping him as a research subject.

But… they did have a fondness for _human_ children. And maybe, just maybe, if Brown could convince them that the child was just a simple human child he could keep them aboard and offload them somewhere when it was safer for both of them. He’d heard parents on past crews warn their offspring that if they wandered off, the evil Impostors would snatch them up for a snack. False, of course; the consensus was that children were too bony and not worth the risk. But maybe he could use that to his advantage. They didn’t know the validity of that story, it’d only take a little convincing to win them over.

Brown made his decision, scooping up the wriggling child to cradle them and replace their helmet as they snapped at his fingers in protest. “No biting. Behave.” When they ignored the older imposter, continuing to wriggle and snap their teeth at the air from behind the helmet, he growled softly in warning, visor lifting to reveal a too-wide mouth full of sharp teeth. At that they finally stilled, watching Brown curiously. “Better. At least one of you can listen.”

By the time Brown left Lime’s quarters with the young imposter in his arms, both were once again indiscernible from the other crewmates.

A good thing, as they almost ran into Yellow just outside the room, looking awfully wary of Brown and the tiny Lime bundle that had stilled in his arms at the sight of the new stranger. Neither of them spoke; Yellow looked at mini Lime, Brown stared wordlessly at Yellow. Satisfied with staring, Yellow turned her visor to look at Brown. Brown couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“...Meeting. Now.”

* * *

“Brown. Can you tell me what that is?”

Brown looked to the lime-coloured bundle curled up in his arms, back to the crew and playing the part of the tired child whilst everyone’s eyes were on the pair. “That’s a child, Yellow.”

A quick burst of laughter caught everyone’s attention, all eyes now on Green who jumped and huddled in on themselves as they softly apologised. Yellow cleared her throat, bringing the rest of the confused crew’s attention back to the matter at hand.

“I can see that, Brown. Can you tell me why you have a child? In a _lime_ suit?”

Yellow’s questions finally seemed to bring the rest of the crew to attention. Up until that point it’d seemed like a horde of zombies in a rainbow of suit colours had shambled their way to the meeting table in the cafeteria, seconds from having a sleepover on the table. Understandable, considering they weren’t required to be awake for another few hours.

Yellow had decided this was much more important to nip in the bud than catching those precious hours of sleep, however.

Brown tilted their visor, thinking. “They’re harmless,” he pointed out. Yellow responded by slamming the table, Blue jerking to attention from his spot at the table where he’d been slowly falling back asleep, helmet-wearing head barely held up with his hands.

“That’s not what I asked. I want to know how long you’ve been keeping the fact Lime had a _child_ on board from us?”

Yellow had always been a patient captain, but even Brown could see the possible danger the lime bundle presented was quickly wearing  her down.  The captain’s visor tilted just the slightest, reflecting the airlock in a silent warning. She was fully prepared to throw out another possible danger to the ship. And possibly those defending its stay on the ship. A little honesty wouldn’t hurt.

“I heard them. While on patrol,” Brown explained. “They’re harmless,” he repeated. “Just a normal kid.”

“And why would an Impostor bring a _human_ child with them? Was anyone else aware Lime had a child?” Yellow turned to look at the rest of the crewmates who all responded with shared looks and shakes of the head. “So we had a stowaway. One that no one would be aware had vanished if they did.”

B rown saw the nervous glances shared between some of the crewmates ,  silently sharing their thoughts with one another. It seemed he hadn’t been the only one who recalled the scary bedtime stories people told their kids. This may be easier than he first thought.

“You know the stories-” Brown began to provide before Yellow raised a hand to silence him.

“I _know_ about the child-snatching Impostor stories. I was honestly hoping they were just stories,” she grumbled, volume dropping to a soft mumble at the end.

Yellow took a deep breath, hands clenching for a moment before she relaxed. Her gaze scanned the crew before stopping on Brown once more. “Brown. Can you promise me that you’re sure this isn’t some odd Impostor trick? Child or not, I cannot have anything threatening this crew.”

Brown nodded, frowning beneath his visor and tightening his grip the slightest as the young Impostor began to wriggle, growing uncomfortable with all eyes on them once more with no chance to escape. Just a little longer and they could retreat away from prying eyes.

“Then we’ll put it to a vote. All in favour of… ejecting them?”

There was a moment of silence before others began to glance around, looking for any raised hands and finding none. Even Yellow hadn’t even seemed to consider moving, nodding in acknowledgement before moving on.

“And who wants to keep them on board?”

Again, hesitation. But this time people began raising hands. Eventually Yellow joined the group of raised hands with a sigh.

“That’s that, then. We keep them on board. But-” Yellow paused, shoulders hunching as she pointed a finger at Brown. “-If a single member of this crew turns up injured or dead then you’re both out. No discussion.”

“...I understand.” Brown rose to his feet, turning towards the hall that passed Medbay before Yellow made a small sound of confusion.

“And where are you going now?”

Brown tilted his head, confused. “Security? It’s still night. Aren’t we done?”

Multiple heads snapped to Yellow. The worry over the possible danger of another Impostor was quickly abandoned, in favour of the crew being concerned they’d not only been woken up early but were not going to get to catch what remained of the ship’s sleep cycle, instead being sent off to start tasks early.

Yellow raised a hand to her visor, giving her best impression of pinching the bridge of her nose with the headgear in the way and nodding. “Right. Everyone, dismissed. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Yellow and Brown silently watched the rest of the crew scatter in the direction of their rooms before Yellow had the chance to change her mind. Once the last colourful suit vanished, the captain moved to follow, pausing just before she would have vanished from Brown’s line of sight.

“Don’t worry about feeding them. There’s going to be leftover rations now that our crew is… smaller.” She paused. “But I don’t usually take on a crew with children if I can help it, so that’ll be their only suit. Keep it clean.”

With that Yellow raised a hand in goodbye and left for her own room, leaving Brown to head back to Security with the wriggling mass in his arms, energy renewed now that it was just the two of them.

He sat them on the edge of the desk and took his seat from earlier once more, quietly observing as the child took in the new room.

“Well. You’re my problem,” he stated, arms crossed and fingers tapping against his arms. He looked to the bare ceiling in thought, frowning. Though they’d been on the ship for a while, they still had a ways to go before they would be finished with whatever MIRA’s mission had been. Only then would he have the chance to separate from the crew and work out what to do with this child – but until then he would be stuck babysitting, unable to get rid of any more of the crew due to Yellow’s promise to immediately eject them both.

Brown covered his visor with a hand, grumbling softly then looking back to the young Impostor, oddly silent compared to their earlier meeting. “Anything to say?”

The only reply Brown received was a sound of confusion and a tilt of the head.

“No? Great.” Brown could see the appeal of Crewmates slapping their helmets in frustration now. At least he could throw the blame on Lime all he wanted, but that wouldn’t be a long-term solution. And Brown couldn’t keep growling any time he had to tell them off; that’d be suspicious if anyone else caught on.

“Okay. Basics, then,” he rumbled.

The rest of their night in Security was spent with Brown trying to get some basic Crewmate approved communication through the child’s head. If he picked up more then great, that’d be less work for whoever would take him later, but for now it’d keep them both on the ship and away from the airlock.

And if he felt a little bit prideful when he discovered how quickly the kid picked up on everything thrown his way, he wouldn’t admit it.

And when they finally docked and he faced the choice of making them someone else’s problem, only to return to the ship with a child in a brown suit, he would ignore the few knowing smiles the crew shared as he passed them in the ship’s cafeteria before they took off again for another mission.


End file.
